The Senseless Violence Gripping Our Community
Another day, another shooting, and another act of senseless violence here in our community.
As Las Vegas residents, almost all of us know someone who’s a student or faculty member at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or we have a friend or family member who knows someone. The degrees of separation are small regarding people’s connections to UNLV.
My heart is with all our followers and partners who are students and staff at UNLV, those with friends or family members at the school, the victims and their families, and our community that is grieving right now.
When the news broke earlier today of an active shooter situation at the UNLV campus, it stopped me in my tracks, as I’m sure it did for you all too. We all dropped what we were doing and started calling and texting everyone we knew to see if they were safe or if their friends and family were safe.
And, perhaps like many others, we messaged someone saying something along the lines of, “Another tragic day for our community,” as this profound grief and anger permeates us all.
A Mix of Emotions
No one, no family, should endure this, especially before the holidays, before graduation, and before living their lives. And it’s not something we should have to experience repeatedly. As I write this, I learned there was a mass shooting in Texas yesterday.
The phrase I’ve heard several times over the years, “We interrupt our report of the current mass shooting to bring you breaking news about another mass shooting actively happening,” rings deafeningly loud. Or that “Once again, a mass shooting happens in the only country that experiences mass shootings frequently.”
I am heartbroken. I feel a deep, painful numbness in my brain going, “Here we go again.” My stomach feels sick and aches to once again sit here waiting to hear if people are safe, to hear students talk about barricading themselves in closets, and talk about how they shouldn’t have to go through this. And to hear them say how they hear this happening all the time in this country but now had to endure it themselves and how life-changing that is.
I feel that “funny feeling” that creeps up into your mind as these stories play on repeat, and nothing changes. And I feel disgusted at hearing politicians say “thoughts and prayers” in response or say that the situation is too raw to talk about action right now.
It makes me feel even more disgusted and angry to live in a country that refuses to do anything about this epidemic of gun violence. Today, I watched news outlets cut interviews with students speaking about these issues, the lack of safety, and the lack of action taken about these endless occurrences of mass shootings. To watch them cut those students off and ultimately cut their emotions off in the rawness of this moment sickened me.
A Community Grappling With Back-to-Back Instances of Senseless Violence
People are sick of the violence we are seeing. The Las Vegas community alone has witnessed so much violence these past several years. From the October 1 mass shooting in 2017 to this latest mass shooting, I don’t know how much more our community can take. It is a weight that we cannot continue to carry and a weight that has only continued to grow as this violence continues and these wounds go unhealed.
Not to mention, in the last few weeks, a high school student was brutally beaten to death, and a couple of local teenagers went on a crime spree with multiple hit-and-runs, killing without remorse. And a few days ago, five unhoused people were killed in a shooting here that barely made a blip in the news.
What is happening? What has become of our city and of our community? What’s causing this rampant, senseless violence? Something definitely feels broken. I don’t have an answer to what that is, nor a solution. I don’t know if anyone does.
Like everyone else, I only have my guesses, and I don’t think the answer or solution is singular. I believe that whatever is broken in our community is connected to the brokenness in our country as a whole and, ultimately, our world. And I believe it involves interconnected issues that people are only just beginning to understand are even connected.
This is a gun violence issue and a lack of gun control issue. It’s a lack of meaningful action and change. It’s a lack of community care and a failed response to the pandemic. It is also a lack of humanity issue, and a lack of empathy issue. It is deep-rooted and interwoven. And it is making people lose hope or fear that they are losing it.
Finding Hope in Despair
I’m no stranger to teetering on the line between hope and despair. It’s days like this when that gravity threatens to pull you down. But I must remind myself that hope is always an option, that I must continue to trust in love rather than fear, and that there is always light in the darkness, even when it feels dim. There are always people out there trying to help make things better so we don’t have to feel this pain and hopelessness; we just have to find them.
From our community to the rest of the country and the world, humanity is aching for change. We’re all deeply hurting right now in so many different ways. And I think we forget that everyone we know or cross paths with is also deeply hurting in ways we might not even begin to understand. But, if we remind ourselves that we are all hurting, perhaps we can hold compassion and space for each other while trying to fix what’s broken. We can choose to connect with each other instead of separating ourselves. Because we can’t address these issues until we sit with one another and actually try to understand these issues and work together to fix them.
So when or how does all this senseless violence end? I don’t know. But I know that enough is enough, and we’ve been saying this for years as these traumatic events continue to happen without meaningful action. I feel that we will only begin healing from the trauma of living in such a violent, uncaring world once we start caring for people and working towards a caring society. Until we do, things will only continue to worsen. Hurt people often hurt other people. It’s time society starts helping people and stops hurting people.
Resources for the Community
Per UNLV’s website, a family reunification center has been established at the Las Vegas Convention Center, North Hall 1 and 2. Call (702) 455-AIDE (2433) or visit www.facofsouthernnevada.org for more information, to reunify with a loved one, or to receive victim support services.
In addition, per 8 News Now, 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline is providing mental health support following UNLV shooting.
And, Fifth Sun Project just posted an ongoing crowdsourced UNLV resource list on their LinkTree.
